I just did a google search for Billings County in South Dakota; it doesn't exist. That must have been a typo. There is a Billings County in North Dakota and there is, all of a sudden, lots of interest in the Lodgepole.
For those who want to see a map of the BLM parcels up for bid, click here.
For those who want to see what "they" paid for these leases, click here. For newbies: the important column is "bonus/acre." You need to scroll down to page 6 to see the $8 million bonus paid by Lodgepole Land Services for parcel 141:
Parcel 141I guess my bid of $50/acre didn't make the cut.
LODGEPOLE LAND SERVICES, 1763 MOFFIT GULCH RD, BOZEMAN, MT 59715
720 acres
Advance rental: $1,080.00
Bonus/acre: $11,600.00 (Four words: In.cred.i.ble.)
Total bonus bid: $8,352,000.00
Total price paid: $8,353,225.00
I do believe $11,600 for any one acre bonus is the highest I have seen in the Bakken, and judging by the name of the bidder, this is not targeted toward the Bakken, but rather the Lodgepole. The highest I have seen in the North Dakota Bakken is about $10,000.
Update: I did find a posting of mine earlier that talked about $12,500/acre.
